


Mishigami

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Awkward Eren Yeager, Biology, Courtship, Exploration of sexuality, Homosapien Ancestory, Human Eren, Lake Michigan, M/M, Mating, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mermaids, Mermen, Migration, Modern AU, Ojibwa Tribe, Research, Sexual Tension, Summer homes, Trying to Hide a Merman in a Bathtub (because that's smart), historical fiction - Freeform, indians - Freeform, merfolk, merman levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-12-02 13:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11510157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eren moves to a summer home on the coast of Lake Michigan and quickly learns that fish aren't the only things swimming under the water's surface.





	1. Manage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WriterfortheTylwythTeg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterfortheTylwythTeg/gifts).



> I love Merman!Levi way to much to even explain, but I also love Merman!Levi who's incredibly avid about getting all of Eren's attention through giving him raw fish even though Eren wants nothing more that to not eat his offerings- but he only does it to be nice and earn Levi's trust.
> 
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> 
> **Also: many of the places mentioned in this fic are actual places. None of them have any connection with this fic whatsoever, and I only wish to mention them to create a more realistic background to the plot and story line. This is not meant to harm any association or person. However, if you do ever happen to be around northern Michigan, I recommend that you check out the areas mentioned in the story if you are looking for things to do.**
> 
>  
> 
> This story is a gift to WriterfortheTylwythTeg for inspiring me with their amazing stories.

It was fucking freezing. 

For late-April weather, Eren would’ve estimated that the surface of Lake Michigan would be well thawed by now. Surely, he should already be ready to hop into a bathing suit and then into the waves constantly pummeling the shoreline- most _definitely_ not a full snow-suit prepared for skiing or ice-fishing weather. 

Eren pouted as he stared out at the few areas of the water covered over with a thin layer of ice; wrapping his arms around his body clothed in the poorly selected outfit of short-sleeves and thin sweatpants. Of course, all of the snow on the beach had melted entirely at that point in time, but apparently the ice hadn’t gotten the memo as soon as winter came to a close. To put it in the words of his mother, the icy weather truly was hangin’ in there like a hair in’a biscuit. 

Kicking at the slightly frozen sand beneath his feet, he turned from where he had been standing near the beginning of the pier to walk back to his summer home a little bit past the dunes. Last year his mother had been watching too much television and came to the assumption that she wanted to purchase a summer home near Lake Michigan in a practically abandoned area. It was located in a small, quaint town that went by the name of Trost; right next to Manistee but just a bit more closer to Onekama. Not many people lived around the town and only a few cars full of tourists passed by or stopped to ask for directions.

So far, Eren couldn’t tell if he loved the place or hated it as he wrinkled his nose at the incredibly obnoxious seagulls to his left. That was the one thing Eren was going to hate over this whole endeavor: the sea-rats. They were annoying and were constantly trying their hardest to steal every bit of food that you had on your being, even if you didn’t have any. As soon as he had gotten out of his car to check out his new summer home, one had cocked its head at him from across the nearest dune and had been stalking him since. Luckily Eren wouldn’t have to come back to this place until school got out in early June.

He huffed at the thought and continued to trudge through the loose sand, “stupid seagulls, stupid summer home, stupid bingo-lady who told my mother that buying a summer home on Lake Michigan would be a great idea.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he slipped on the sand and nearly fell to his knees; almost like it was mother nature’s way of telling him to fuck off. 

It was fairly quiet out by the empty pier, even with the birds squawking non-stop, and Eren found himself already appreciating the silence that would come with living in such a remote area. He had lived in the city of Jackson, Michigan most of his life and nowhere else. Traffic was annoying, as well as the people; it had obviously been time for a change for a few months out of the year- what better way to do that than spend the entire summer in northern Michigan. 

“Eren!” Carla, Eren’s mother, called out from where she had been removing the “for sale” sign by the front of the house, “have you seen the beach yet? It’s absolutely gorgeous! _Way_ better than the pictures than I’ve seen!” She pulled the picture of the Real Estate Agent’s face from the post outside of their new summer-home -they didn’t have a mailbox, since they were so far out, and would thus have to drive twenty minutes into town every day to get their mail- and tossed it aside. She wiped her hands on her jeans and crossed her arms; smile of pure happiness splitting her face, “It’s perfect.”

Her son looked up at the house and could only agree with his Mother’s statement. The house was gorgeous; a beautiful baby blue along with white trim and quinoa designs. It was a three story house with a hip and gable roof parallel to the dirt road leading into the city. On Top of that, a simple gable roof sat with a balcony extending over the back of the house facing the beach. On the left side of the house, two tall pine trees loomed over the summer home, which would later help with keeping it cool in the heat.

A semi-circle bow window was on the backside of the home just beneath the balcony, which couldn’t be seen from Eren’s current position, but had been observed from when he had been by the pier- along with a gorgeous hexagonal gazebo that matched the color scheme of the house being led to by a stone path. 

“Yeah,” Eren breathed, staring at the house for just a few more minutes to fully become adapted to the sight of the home he was going to have to live in for the entire summer. “It’s beautiful.”

Carla offered her son a small grin as he looked in her direction and pulled him into a hug, “We’re going to have so much fun up here- just you wait. I found a job in Frankfort at a bar and I bet you can eat whatever you want there. They even have a piano you can play since we can’t bring up your’s!” She pulled away from the embrace but kept her hands attached to Eren’s shoulders.

“I know that you would rather stay at home with your friends, but this is going to be great for us! Just you, me and the great outdoors!”

“Don’t forget about the thousands of seagulls that will constantly be trying to steal away our food,” Eren offered as a joke hoping to assure his mother that staying up north for the whole summer wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. He had been planning to hang out with Mikasa and Armin for the entirety of break and spend his time doing nothing but have movie marathons, along with a few trips to the grocery store to get tub after tub of ice cream, but this would be fine for him. He loved his Mom too much to complain about his predicament.

Carla clasped her hands together in front of her chest while she turned back to face the summer home, “I can’t wait until this summer! We can light fireworks whenever we want to, have campfires down at the beach, swim, jump off the pier… we can practically do anything and no one else can bother us!” Without another word, she began to walk towards the house in an obvious display to check out the interior.

Eren glanced down at his watch and sighed. As soon as his Mother was out of earshot and already walking up the steps, he muttered whilst kicking at the sand; covering the real estate agent’s smiling and over enthusiastic face on the ground: “I certainly can.”

...

A tall, lanky man dressed in a poorly tailored suit slowly made his way across a room. To where he was going, one of his workers was standing alongside a small, metallic tank with a single, Plexiglas window being the only way to look inside. An almost disgusting smile spread across his thin lips as he leaned forward to come face to face with the believed to be purely a myth.

The man tapped the side of the tank in the middle of his laboratory; a loud, hollow sound echoing throughout the nearly empty room, “this thing is going to sell for millions to Z’s. Now, Hitch, where did you happen to find this beauty in such a short amount of time?” He stood up straight and fixed his grey suit jacket; turning to his accomplice to pat her on the shoulder as a small show of praise.

Hitch crossed her arms and smiled at the comment that she had had earned from her boss, “I have my ways, _Nile_... it was easy to get my hands on it with my… _methods._ ” She chuckled at her wording and leaned back against a nearby pillar for support, “You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get what you want from Keith Shadis… I had him wrapped around my finger.” To prove her point, she held up a hand and twirled her pointer finger in the air.  
Nile smiled at her and raised his hands to slowly clap in her direction. Truly, his attention was still on the tank where the creature was still moving around in the almost nonexistent amount of empty room inside..

“Does he know that you have it?” 

The girl laughed lightly and looked over at the opaque tank, “I wouldn’t say so… he was too busy to even notice that one of these things had been taken from his sanctuary.” Running her fingers through her dirty blonde hair, she then continued, “I distracted him until sunset, where I then stole one from where he keeps them. Since he took such great care of it in the first place, it’s in amazing shape. Muscle patterns in correct order… strong, definitely; much better than the ones we sold to Z last season.”

With a chuckle, Nile raised an eyebrow, “and where does he happen to keep these things at?”

Hitch shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans, “Lake Michigan.”

...

Hanji stared at the samples in front of her, unbelieving of what she was observing.

She couldn’t believe it. She actually couldn't believe it. For all of this time, humans had believed that humans had only evolved from ape-like creatures- and yet, Hanji had just proved the work of over thousands of scientists and anthropologists wrong with a simple diving exposition that lasted not even an hour. Centuries of research was just tossed aside for what Hanji had discovered.

With careful yet shaking fingers, Hanji lifted up two fragments of the skull that she had found at the bottom of Lake Michigan only forty-five minutes previous. The pieces that Hanji had found, alongside numerous artifacts and even a living specimen, were a discovery that any scientist would be foaming at the mouth over. Everything about this skull was _different_. The cheek bones were higher than that of a human’s originating from primates- especially with something not close to the usual sexual dimorphism found in the canine teeth in the skull of early humans. There was no way to tell if the skull was female or male depending on how humans are classified depending on bone structure. 

Hanji most likely believed it was female because of the differing frontal bone from her live specimen that was male- but Hanji had no idea if this species was one that was widely variant in the cranium spectrum's of each organism. 

It most definitely wasn’t human… but it had developed in a way that was almost human.

She furrowed her eyebrows together and let out an incredibly shaky breath as she set the skull fragments down next to the rest of the skeleton that had been uncovered in the sediment of the bottom of the lake. Originally, she had only been searching for worthy specimens relating to only fish as of bluegill and/or walleye; any fish that could be found in Lake Michigan, really. She hadn’t expected to be attacked as soon as she spotted some kind of bone sticking out of the thick layers of sand at the very bottom of the lake. 

_As she was swimming to the bottom to observe her find closer, something had shoved her against the sand; grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back to collide with her oxygen tank. Terrified didn’t even begin to explain what Hanji was feeling at that exact moment. Her mind was cloudy from the sudden attack of something on the very bottom of the lake with human-like arms. Was there another diver trying to harm her? Did someone follow her down? Her diving buddy, Moblit, didn’t even bring his diving gear, so it was impossible for it to be him. Not only that, but he would obviously never harm her._

Hanji looked down at the skeleton on her lab table again and glanced back where Moblit was pacing back and forth with a notepad and pencil in his hands; scribbling things down ferociously into Hanji’s field journal over their most recent discovery. 

Long story short, _Hanji had nearly escaped thanks to her diving knife and had swam to the surface even after her breathing hose had been cut by whatever had pinned her down. There was a large chance that Hanji didn’t collect all of the artifacts and bones from the remains she had discovered (she had practically shoved all she could find into that bag she was intending to collect live samples of fish that lived in the deeper water of the lake to see if they were somewhat different from others) and followed her line back to the surface._

_Half-way back up, her lights had gone out and she was terrified for her life. Whatever had been down at the bottom was following her up and brushing against her leg every few seconds. It was only a thirty second swim back to the oat where Moblit was waiting, but she was already almost out of air; her lungs burning and screaming for oxygen._

Hanji rubbed her face with her hands and sighed; her mind racing a million miles a minute. She turned around and looked into the tank that was holding the creature that she had discovered upon accident. 

The merman glared at her and slammed a closed fist against the Plexiglas wall; an obvious attempt to escape from the area where it was now contained. It barked loudly and then hissed almost as if it was offended animal. In nearly a millisecond, it had quickly delved to the other side of the tank in a flash of silvery scales and bubbles; taking refuge behind a large boulder that Hanji had placed near the far well of the glass environment. 

No one else in the entire world knew that merfolk did, in fact, _exist._


	2. Manipulate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji does an examination over the creature that she had discovered; which she now calls M01.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter dives more into the realm of how Hanji believes that the "merman" body works, and how he ended up to be where he currently is in the Great Lakes.

_“[...]all organisms encounter some amount of environmental change. Some changes occur over a short time, and may be cyclical, such as daily or seasonal variations in the amount of temperature, light, and precipitation. On longer time scales, hominins_ [a primate of a taxonomic tribe ( Hominini ), which comprises those species regarded as human, directly ancestral to humans, or very closely related to humans] _experienced large-scale shifts in temperature and precipitation that, in turn, caused vast changes in vegetation – shifts from grasslands and shrub lands to woodlands and forests, and also from cold to warm climates. Hominin environments were also altered by tectonics – earthquakes and uplift, such as the rise in elevation of the Tibetan Plateau, which changed rainfall patterns in northern China and altered the topography of a wide region. Tectonic activity can change the location and size of lakes and rivers...unlike seasonal or daily shifts, the effects of many of these changes lasted for many years, and were unexpected to hominins and other organisms, raising the level of instability and uncertainty in their survival conditions._

_Many organisms have habitat preferences, such as particular types of vegetation (grassland versus forests), or preferred temperature and precipitation ranges. When there’s a change in an animal’s preferred habitat, they can either move and track their favored habitat or adapt by genetic change to the new habitat. Otherwise, they become extinct. Another possibility, though, is for the adaptability of a population to increase – that is, the potential to adjust to new and changing environments. The ability to adjust to a variety of different habitats and environments is a characteristic of humans [and many other organisms alike]…”_

“Climate Effects on Human Evolution.” _Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History._ Smithsonian. Mar. 30, 2016.

...

“Fascinating,” Hanji muttered to herself as she placed a single scale into a test dish using elongated tweezers. The material of the scale was completely irregular from some of the other scales that she had seen from the same specimen. It was completely opaque and darker in shade than the others, which was leading Hanji to believe that the fish-like organism that she had found was one who shed it’s scales depending on the time of the year- considering that it was found in a habitat with four seasons. But it could also mean that it would shed it’s scales to reveal a lighter, more translucent layer to attract a possible mate.

Moblit switched out the lense that was on Hanji’s camera that she used to take photos of her samples and replaced the memory card with one entirely for this organism alone. Today, the two were planning on taking photo-records of the artifacts they had found at the bottom of the lake, along with the “Merman” itself and all of the organism’s appendages. On the blue memory card, there was “Mer-S001” written in black marker to keep track of which “case”, per say, it was a part of. 

“Get the measuring tapes, please,” Hanji asked her accompanist as she grabbed the camera from Moblit to snap a flash image of the scale in the dish without the measuring tape, and then one identical void of the flash option on which could thus influence the color outtake. She took another photo from another angle to make sure she had as much to her records as possible. Moblit then returned with a handful of yellow measuring tapes and handed one to Hanji that measured in inches and centimeters. Then, the process was repeated with the measuring tapes.

“Is M01 fully put to sleep yet? Were the tranquilizers successful?” Hanji scrolled through the photos on her camera and then glanced upwards.

Moblit nodded, “Yes, it’s immune system appears to be incredibly similar to ours since its species has evolved in a very similar way to our own; the only difference being that it has a lower tolerance to the tranquilizers than that of a human's. A dose of something as simple as used for sleep aid could potentially kill it.” He handed the rest of the measuring tapes to Hanji, “now, do you want to take the photos and tests on the floor or on one of your examination tables?”

The woman set her camera down onto the counter top on the left side of her lab and thought momentarily, “I think it would be wiser to take all of the captures on the floor- just in case M01 somehow were to awaken during our examination. In such a case, having it on the floor would prevent injury of both us and M01. I wouldn’t expect for something to occur, but we must take all of the necessary precautions. We know nothing of this species. For all we know, they seem to be extremely rare, and I wouldn’t want to hurt the poor thing.” She placed her hand on her chin, “I really wish I could perform an autopsy on it, but since it’s still living, we’ll have to wait until we find an already dead specimen. Until then, we have to make a few educated guesses as to if it’s body works similar to ours- excluding the fish-like tail and muscles that may tie into it.”

Mobit nodded and watched as Hanji walked across the lab room to where she had medical supplies in a few of the cabinets to take blood, hair, scale, skin, nail clippings, and many other samples from the creature, “do you want to release it after we’re done with DNA samples and image capturing?” 

Hanji carried a tray of all of her necessary tools over to a table where they could set M01 nearby, “Yes, it wouldn’t be fair to keep it locked up in such a small tank. If they are as rare as I’d like to assume, I wouldn’t want it to experience such distress with being away from others of it’s kind- that it, believing they are more of a pack animal who live in pods.” Without a moment to waste, she pulled on a pair of light blue surgical gloves to conduct a thorough examination, followed by image capturing. 

“Now, I suggest we hurry. I have no idea how quickly its liver will sort out the tranquilizers in its bloodstream, and I don’t think we’ll be in for a pleasant surprise if M01 decides to attack us if it wakes prematurely. So, please, go check to make sure that it is still in a suitable state of unconsciousness, before you bring it out for me. I’ve already put on my gloves.”

Moblit did exactly as he had been told and made his way back to the separate part of the laboratory where Hanji kept all of her many living and dead specimens (the dead being suspended in small jars of formaldehyde solutions unless they were now left in layers of rock as fossils or simply just bones) to collect M01. He was just as excited as Hanji to see how the creature’s DNA differed to modern human’s since it had been living in a different type of habitat. Obviously, it had to have come from an ancestor of humans. It must have started as a genetic mutation, and grew into something much greater. Or, it could’ve started off similarly to early humans, and divided itself to adapt to water-induced habitats other than that of land. 

To many, Hanji’s lab room could’ve been seen as terrifying and something straight out of a horror film. However, to the scientists who owned the building, it was beautiful. It was a room dedicated to nothing other than the form of living beings who roamed the Earth. It showed all of the human race’s brothers, sisters and cousins to the rest of the world through glass, and for that reason, it was incredibly interesting to both Moblit and Hanji- even though they had to agree that it looked more like something out of a mad science lab than a small research facility. 

M01 was already placed on a wheelable, steel table and restrained from when both Moblit and his partner had put it under hold to induce it into a coma-like state through medicine. It was an extremely gentle tranquilizer (which had been Hanji’s choice, since she didn’t want to accidentally give it too much medicine and cause permanent brain damage, or even death) and it truly was the most simplest that they had in their entire laboratory. It would most likely be enough to get it through a simple examination before it would wear off. 

Moblit easily wheeled M01 into the room where Hanji was finishing up the last touches of gathering the tools she was going to be using. She had concluded that she wished to take photos of the whole “merman” before she would conduct her examination; before blood, nail clipping, etc. had been collected for further evaluation in other labs, where they would use better technology to see where M01 had come from and if it was similar to humans in anyways other than upper body replicant-wise. 

They carefully unstrapped M01 from the wheelable table and lowered it onto the floor where Hanji had laid out a white sheet that was similar to the fabric of a bed spread. Of course, they did this as gently as possible since they were still so weary of the creature 

Using many of the measuring tapes that Moblit had brought in earlier that day, Hanji and her research partner captured images of everything they could find on M01. They first started with its head, face and gills, and then worked their way down past arms, torso, reproductive organs, and what Hanji was most intrigued in overall: the tail. 

The color was something to be remembered, truly. It was a mixture of greys and blues, which blended downwards and together. Unfortunately, the “merman” did have signs of damage on the front of M01’s tail. Besides this, Hanji assumed for the colors having to do with the warmer temperatures of the end of spring and beginning of summer, or even having to do with mating. It wasn’t uncommon for animals to have bright, colorful things such as feathers to attract mates, so Hanji would not be surprised if that was the case with these “merfolk” either. For centuries, many species of birds were slowly introduced to the same practice, and it truly was a practical one for communication between two of the same species. 

Hanji easily concluded that M01 was male due to how it’s reproductive organs were such of similar relation to that of a male human. The only difference that such things were hidden under a small flap of skin and scales just below its torso and where the skin faded into colorful scales for what was most likely protection. It was quite practical, since M01 had shown signs of being extremely aggressive and territorial at the moment Hanji had discovered him, it was quite easily concluded that the “merman” would be getting into fights with other males for mating grounds or territory. The area was already as sensitive as it could be; under such circumstances, it could easily become a target to disarm the male of fighting skills during a battle. Much as it would be between a fight of men.

She was incredibly fascinated with the “merman’s” tail, however. It was built similarly to that of a fishes, but seemed to be almost stronger than a great white shark’s due to its strong reflexes if pushed in certain places (like a human's knee would bounce if a doctor tapped it in a specific area). Hanji guessed that the creature must at least be able to swim at least thirty-five to forty-five miles per hour after her examination with an x-ray to observe M01’s bones, and her own fingers to discover how much of his tail was actually muscle, and how much was either useless tissue like fat, or organs. Not even that, but his tale was scraped heavily along the front. 

The organ part couldn’t be discovered until Hanji could find a non living specimen, but she could definitely tell that most of the entire “merman’s” body was built of solid muscle and little to no fat. Only a thin layer of skin sat on the taut muscles of the male’s abdominal region- which could also be decided throughout the rest of M01’s entire body. Hanji concluded that he was swimming around for most of his time and taking little to no rest from how overworked his entire body appeared to be. The latter was most likely a new thing for the male to experience within the past week up to a month prior. Through the X-ray performed on M01, there were signs of a stress fracture on both of his forearms, which led Hanji to believe that the “merman” had crawled over quite a bit of land to reach where he was now in the great lakes. Not only that, but such a fracture would’ve also likely taken place due to malnutrition and a calcium deficiency. 

Needless to say, he had been on something akin to a “mission;” something incredibly important to him. 

Hanji hypothesized that he had been searching for something, or even chasing, for the past while. She thought that it could perhaps relate back to her whole mating season idea, and that he needed to be in a certain area for that time of the year to find a suitable female, but most living creatures wouldn’t go through that much trouble to mate. To have such a drastic stress fracture on the “merman’s” forearms, he must’ve crawled across more than just a few miles of land to reach where he was now. That, and he hadn’t been eating anything for that entire time to reach such a low level of calcium- which could lead to early onset osteoporosis since the creature couldn’t be more than the age of Hanji herself. It could also explain how damaged and scraped up the front of his tail was.

She explained her findings to Moblit and he eagerly took notes to remember everything that she had been saying. Many of the things that she chose to discuss were just merely conspiracies at the moment, but she had to guess that at least one of them had some truth to the back of it. The whole mating-season idea was an interesting one, but it was believable enough to be factual. They knew little to nothing of this new-found species, also including how far they would go to find a mate and what hardships they would endure to do so. It was a complete possibility in Hanji’s mind. 

With wild hand movements and excitement written all over the female’s face, Hanji then continued to say: “there’s probably more of them out in the Great Lakes if he had traveled all of this way to find a mate _here_ of all places! He most likely came from the ocean as well, which means his species is able to adapt to both salt and freshwater environments- incredible!” She clapped her hands together out of joy and continued to ramble on and on about more of what she had discovered. “Also, he had adapted to the cold lake water and survived! Most fish wouldn’t be able to survive under such harsh environmental variants- but his species apparently can! Imagine how much more he is capable of!” Hanji giddily adjusted her glasses. 

Moblit nodded and scribbled what she had said down into her field journal, but in a more reasonable, scientific language that was more descriptive for whoever would read the same notes in the future, “mhm, now, is there anything else you’d like me to write down?”

Hanji shook her head roughly and snatched the notebook from her partner's hands to write a few things of her own in the log for today. With the merman laying right in front of her, she took the time to quickly sketch out the form of the male, along with a close of up of his tail from two angles and gills. She found herself quite interested in the long length of the nails on each of the “merman’s” fingers; used for hunting and protection against other predators that may be looking to harm him. 

After her quick sketches were complete to show a rough depiction of the unconscious creature on the medical examination table, Hanji set her book down on a counter top and grabbed a vial she had intended to use to collect a blood sample from the raven-haired form to use for later reference. 

Hanji wiped the area on M01’s arms clean before drawing a vial of blood as simply as ever. While the blood seemed to be the same exact shade as the human race’s, she was lead to believe that there might be slight differences in red blood cell count, and resistances to diseases that humans were adapted to over centuries, that M01 might not be. 

With a few more samples taken from the “merman” that Hanji had discovered, both her and Moblit assisted each other in wheeling M01 back into the other half of the lab and lowered him into the large tank-environment. After he would awake from the tranquilizer, they would release him back into the lake, but for now, he would stay in the take as Hanji put a tag together to attach to the creature to keep track of him to see where he would go as time passed. Hanji truly was invested to see if it would travel to the ocean, or stay in the Great Lakes after it grew comfortable with the waters. 

It was hard to tell what M01’s next move was going to be, but whatever it was, Hanji would be there just a step behind.


	3. Misdivision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren pays another visit to his house and makes a startling discovery that the world isn't as friendly as it always appears.
> 
> Hanji and Moblit continue research over M01.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly confusion chapter, but if you don't jump to conclusions too quickly you might be able to sort this one out.

Eren stared up at the summer home looming over him; the dark weather of the June day turning his mood sour. He had already been looking slightly forward to be able to swim as soon as he arrived, but that already seemed to be quite far from what was going to be the truthful events. Hell, Eren was never one who was looking forward to the act of swimming. Of course, since the opportunity was now out of the question, he was aggravated by its absence. 

His mother had complained about him saying that he was going to spend the rest of the day inside, and had insisted on him spending some time outdoors before it stormed for the rest of the week. Carla had left just moments earlier to secure her job at the bar she was going to work at, which would leave the entire house and property to Eren for upwards of two hours. That meant that she ordered Eren to go down to the beach and explore, and if she didn’t see footprints in the sand by the time she returned, he was going to be grounded, (which was unrealistic as it was due to the wind picking up in speed.) 

After Carla would solidify her position, they were going to drive home and return a week later when school was to be let out. This was simply just the day that she needed to have somewhat of a “job interview” with the bar’s owner. She wasn’t happy with having to drive four hours back since they had already driven up that same day, but since Eren had forgotten his license at home, that was going to be the case. 

Eren sighed and kicked at the sand. Since the last time he had visited the place, the sand had defrosted in one way or another, and there was no ice whatsoever on the lake. It could actually be easily taken as a beautiful day on the beach- if you subtracted the four-foot waves and quickly darkening sky. Without a doubt, it was going to storm within the hour. It was definitely a safety hazard to be at the lake with the current weather and riptide warnings that were being displayed on the news. The only plus of the whole situation was that there were no seagulls their to annoy any beachgoers. 

He hummed nonchalantly as he began to walk a little bit further down the beach; carefully avoiding the waves that climbed their way up the shoreline. With each reach of the water, more rocks were washed up onto the sand and then quickly dragged away with the next wave leaving. Eren had heard that in Lake Michigan there was the possibility of finding fossils known as Petosky stones in the water or near it, which Eren was thus keeping an eye out for. He had only seen pictures of them in books or online. It would definitely make his day if he could find one or two during his short-lived walk.

Most of the stones were extremely weathered, eroded, and dark in color. With the darkness of the sky, Eren couldn’t necessarily tell which of the rocks contained the dark spots associated with the certain fossil. He would pause his movement every few paces to lean over and check out a few of the stones that he thought to be the rock he was searching for. Since he wasn’t paying much attention to the waves and when they were approaching, on multiple occasions, Eren’s shoe-covered feet were drenched with the lake water.

With everything occurring in Eren’s and his Mother’s life at the moment, all he wanted to do was find a Petoskey Stone for Carla as a gift. She had expressed her interest in wanting to find a few during the summer earlier that day on the way up, and Eren felt that it would make her a bit less stressed if she knew that her son had been thinking of her. Between the divorce and her losing her old job just before the New Year, her life wasn’t on the best of terms at the moment. 

A particularly hard gust of wind smacked Eren straight in the side of his face and blew through his hair roughly; almost like hands instead of air.

Looking out at the lake, he grimaced as his eyes began to water because of the colder air coming in from the lake. If it was like any normal day of the beginning of summer, a breeze like that would be one to be thankful for. However, today was not like “any other” summer day, and it was easily as low as sixty degrees Fahrenheit near the water. Eren wasn’t close to any qualifications to state why it was so cold that day in particular, but he estimated that it was somehow related to the storm brewing overhead.

That being stated, Eren knew that he should get inside rather soon so he didn’t get caught in a strong downpour of rain and thunderstorms almost a half-mile down the beach from his summer home. Surely that would be the reasonable thoughts of any reasonable human on any reasonable day under reasonable circumstances, but Eren felt drawn to the lake and the atmosphere it came with. He felt at peace and unstressed. It was a total one-eighty from his usual life of terrifying exams and usual teenager issues. 

He also guessed that it would be a five to six-minute jog back if it did happen to begin storming- and even then, he would hear the thunder or see the lightning before the rain began. That would be a cue for him to leave, and as soon as he was closer to his home was then it was going to begin. Most likely.

Eren quickly realized that he had been lost in his thoughts and unaware of his surroundings until a particularly strong wave reached a good four feet past his initial stand-point and doused his body lower than his shins completely with water. Cursing at himself, he began to walk backward out of the rising tide when he caught his foot on the side of a particularly large stone and fell into the shallow water.

Cold wasn’t the only thing that Eren was feeling as soon as he landed onto the rocky lake bed. Pain shot up through his hands from the shock of the fall as well as his knees. Since all of the rocks were well rounded from the many years they had been slowly rolled to and fro, Eren knew that he hadn’t cut himself on any sharp stones or glass (the area was practically void of all human hands that had the capability to leave broken bottles.) No alarming damage had occurred from the fall, but it was obvious that his knees were going to bruise like an overripe banana the following day.

The wind was so strong that if Eren hadn’t of been paying attention to the sounds originating all around him, that he would’ve missed the slightly louder splash that came from behind him as he stood up. Shivering, cold, and in slight pain in both of the hands and knees, Eren wrapped his arms tightly around his torso in a measly attempt to warm himself up. All thoughts of him aggravated by the fact of not being able to swim went straight out of his ear as his mind tended to the noises behind him.

With the wind picking up another strong gust, Eren tightened his grip while he turned his head to survey the water. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for a storm-ridden body. The wave's height had increased when in comparison to the past’s, the Whitecaps of the rolling waves splash upward; pale hands of the lake reaching for the sky to escape the growling water. 

If Eren would've blinked, he would’ve missed it.

Nearly ten feet from where Eren was standing in the shadows, he saw a flash of gray color burst above the water-level and disappear as quickly as it had surfaced. It glimmered in the poor light of the late June day; catching the few sun rays that were there and reflecting them similarly to perfectly-polished silver. There was no solid explanation for the color as it broke the crest of a wave for a second time, only closer than where it had been before.

Before Eren could even begin the process of realizing what was occurring, he was blinding stumbling back towards the shore; tripping over stones and the uneven sandy ground that covered the lake-bed. The uncertainty of whatever was in the water was what frightened him. An inanimate object or otherwise, he felt a strong, primal need to protect himself based off of the natural chemistry in his brain. 

He didn’t reach the shoreline before something yanked him down into the water of the shallows.

...

Hanji was annoyed, to say the least. It had been four weeks since they had released M01 back into the wild, and, already, he was practically impossible to find. Whether it be from her tracking device on the mer-creature’s tail being damaged, or just simply not working, the signal was practically almost impossible to retrieve for the most part. Nearly almost every hour, a small blimp of what Hanji believed to be his location would show up on her laptop screen, but it would then go dark, and for another hour you would not know which direction he was going in.

Not only was it completely frustrating since Hanji wished to locate his GPS coordinates, and then take a boat out to see if she could catch footage M01 in his natural habitat, but it also was taking up much of her time to sit and watch her screen until a little red dot would appear, along with the longitude and latitude of its current position. From five in the morning until well into the early hours of the next day, Hanji would sit there and stare, trying to see if she could predict his next move, or see if he was attempting to travel in a certain general direction.

To her, it seemed as if M01 was confused… like he wanted to go somewhere but didn’t know where that place exactly was. It didn’t really make sense to the scientist for the most part, but it wasn’t totally strange in her eyes. Nature was unpredictable as anything could ever be. The fact that M01 was swimming half-way across the lake, and then turning around, only to go back was just an example of how strange nature was. Truly, there had to be an explanation for her subject’s incredibly peculiar behavior but she would most likely never figure out what that answer was. Practically nothing was known of his species. It would be impossible to assume at that point what he was doing. 

Moblit was the first to realize that Hanji was much too invested into this case. At first, it started out with simply staying up late to do research over folk-lore containing mermaids and mermen, but then it turned into a full-on obsession of staring at a laptop for hours on end- only to scream if she saw the slightest bit of red somewhere on her animated map of the Great Lakes. 

Time after time, Moblit would have to remind Hanji to eat and drink, change her clothes, or even shower because it completely flew over her head. Occasionally, Moblit would even believe that the obsession was over due to Hanji standing from her work desk, but not even five minutes later, she would return with another book over Merfolk to read as she waited for another red dot. 

“He’s most likely searching for something,” Hanji said around the thirty-second day at two in the morning.

Moblit yawned and glanced over at his work partner's laptop screen. As he thought, a small red blip was blinking up near the North West side of Michigan’s lower peninsula. It was so close to the state itself that he even questioned if the creature had somehow made its way on land. 

“Where was he the last time that you checked?” The male asked, fending off the tiredness that seemed to almost seep into his very soul. He yawned once again for the fifth time in the past two minutes and quickly decided that he would have to go to sleep soon if he wanted to be able to work the following day (which meant trying to drag Hanji to bed so she wouldn’t stay up for over an unhealthy amount of time with twenty-four hours without sleep.)

“Same spot,” Hanji rested her head in the palms of her hands and sighed. “His patterns were so irregular just hours ago, but something seems to have changed… M01 went from swimming all of the way up to the Mackinac Bridge and back to Chicago within the same 48 hours, to simply, just sitting in the same position. He’s most likely taking this time to rest since he hasn’t been getting much of it… but I just find it so strange… He definitely has to be searching for something. No one would travel this far from the ocean for shits and giggles.” 

Moblit nodded slowly and watched the excitement drain from Hanji’s face at the red dot on the screen faded, “do you have any ideas what he could be searching for? Truly, you must have some kind of an idea if you are proposing an idea like that.” 

Hanji shrugged but nearly jumped out of her seat as the red dot came back onto the screen once again in what was one of the quickest resurges that had occurred in the past thirty-two days. 

Leaping up to sit straight up in her chair, her hand flew to the mouse sitting next to her laptop and clicked on the red spot. It was in the same exact place as before, much closer to the shore than it was earlier. Confusion didn’t even begin to describe how Hanji was feeling. The tracker hadn’t fallen off or anything similarly since Hanji was still receiving vitals from M01, but he still located within the same mile radius as his location from three days earlier. 

In addition, M01’s heart-rate was almost at an inappropriate rate; higher than it had been when he was swimming for hours on end, higher than all of Hanji’s recorded rates in the past. An unhealthy heart-rate.

“Whatever he was searching for,” Hanji let go of her mouse and leaned back into her chair; taking off her glasses and folding them. “He found it.”

...

He slowly felt himself losing consciousness; his eyes burning from staring into the cold, sandy water, while his lungs burned even worse from their lack of oxygen. With no understanding of what was actually going on, Eren was in a state of complete and utter shock as he thrashed to free himself.There was ultimately no explanation in his mind for what would cause something to drag him under the water- let alone, _what_ would drag him under the water. He was probably thirty minutes from the closest neighbor and well-away from civilization. If he were to drown, no one would know he was dead until someone stumbled across his body washed up on shore. No one would know the true reason for his death.

 _Why was this happening? What was going on? What was pulling him out?_

Whatever had grabbed onto Eren’s arm was still pulling him farther and into the deeper areas of the lake. Its grasp was strong- it almost seemed to have the same strength and overall hand-like features of a human. He tried to catch a glance of what was pulling him out, but only seemed to see the silver color from earlier, and a golden head of hair.

Eren could feel his heart slamming in his chest a mile a minute as each second went by. He felt his foot brush past a rock and he realized that he was near the bottom of the lake, probably ten to fifteen feet under from how his ears were aching due to the pressure- not nearly as deep enough to be considered as an area to drown in. Everyone in the world would expect to drown in the ocean, five miles out and in extremely deep water. 

Panic. He was panicking. His mind couldn’t conjure up a single, reasonable thought regarding anything. All he knew, in the very pit of his stomach, that this was it. After holding his breath for so long, his body finally decided that it had enough with the burning sensation, and forced Eren to take an extremely large, stuttering breath of water. 

He wanted to cry, he wanted to scream, he wanted to force his body to find its way back to the surface and live a long, happy life, he wanted to stop taking in the deep inhales of water, but he simply couldn’t. Eren’s body was acting on autopilot.

Eren’s throat convulsed at the intake of such high amounts of water into his lungs. The burning sensation continued to grow and spread throughout his very core; flowing down to his finger tips and in into his brain. He knew that this was it.

With the last bit of energy that was existent within his being, he glanced up towards the small bit of shadowy light that was being cast through the water above his head. If he were to live another day, he would be able to look up at such a sight and be thankful for its beauty. He could acknowledge the existence of the gorgeous sight and maybe even bring a pair of swimming goggles to take down with him. 

He wished he could say goodbye to his friends and family.

Just as blackness overcame Eren’s vision, and death was tangible on the end of his tongue, one of the hands pulling him was abruptly ripped away from his arm, and was replaced with two much stronger, but yet smaller, hands. This time, pulling him to the surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clarify, the first "thing" that was pulling Eren under was not Levi.
> 
> I'm sure we call all guess who the second one was, however ;)


	4. Mundaine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More research regarding the skeleton found by Hanji and Eren meets someone that can only be originating from a mythology book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vocabulary that might be useful:
> 
> axial skeleton: part of the skeletal system that protects your most important organs (rib cage, spinal chord, sternum, cranium)
> 
> appendicular skeleton: part of the skeleton that supports the rest of the body/ form your extremities (humerus, femur, tibia, phalanges.) 
> 
> cranium: skull
> 
> clavicle: collar bone
> 
> cartilage: firm, whitish, flexible connective tissue found in various forms (found on nose, in joints, ears, etc.)
> 
> compact bone: dense bone
> 
> spongy bone: bone tissue that is filled with red bone marrow (used as a shock absorber) 
> 
> scapula: shoulder blade
> 
> UCSF: (University of California) a research university widely known for its med school programs and extensive hospital care
> 
> (im probably only referring to skeletons so much since its close to Halloween but eh spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine shrieking skulls with shock your souls)

_Two days previous._

For eight hours straight, Hanji went back to the exact GPS location where she had first found M01, and dived to find the remaining bones of the skeleton of the one she had first discovered that same day. On her first exhibition, she had uncovered the entire axial (or what she assumed to be the axial) skeleton of M01’s counterparts. She had brought up the cranium, jaw, numerous vertebrae, rib cage and sternum and she could only assume that there were many more bones located on he bottom of the lake buried beneath sediment. Hanji, however, was unable to find anything in resemblance to a human clavicle in what she had discovered, and instead found a look-alike that was much more flat and wider- almost like the scapula, or shoulder bone. It was believed to cover the heart in an extra layer of bone rather than just the rib cage; an unmovable “scapula” in the frontal chest area. 

After her second exhibition, she was fascinated to have found what she believed to be the entire skeleton of the creature she now described as S01. It consisted of many of the same or extremely similar bones of the human skeleton- the only difference being in the long, extended spine to accommodate the tail of the fish-like creature, and the tail frame formed from cartilage and almost entirely spongy bone. Hanji already counted, and because of the extended tail and removal of the bones that would be in a humans legs, there were 302 bones in the creature she discovered- the large number originating from the 147 bones being in just the tail and added vertebrae.

Most of the bones that were located within the tail were more namely created out of cartilage rather than compact bone. Hanji found this to be what she would’ve expected since S01 and M01 were both mainly resembling fish and other aquatic creatures who were built up of cartilage. Also, Hanji discovered that the numbers of metacarpals in the hands were doubled. The reason behind this was unknown to the scientist. However, she knew that its reason was somewhat important if these creatures had evolved in such a way. 

With the now what appeared to be completed skeletal system splayed on the table before her, she could finally come to a few conclusions on what she had discovered. The skeleton was female according to Hanji’s findings in relation to her now released living specimen. The cheekbones were much higher than that of a humans and the usual frame of an early human was present; developed but not entirely. Hanji would most likely be taking a journey to a laboratory within the next week or so to take tests on her found specimen. 

Just like she had done with M01 and his scale samples, Hanji pulled on a pair of baby blue surgical gloves after pulling off her UCSF sweater from her college years. Her main goal was to return to the task of image capturing before sketching everything out by hand and taking individual measurements- then comparing everything that would be found to a human’s skeletal structure. First, she would cover the axial skeleton (which she had discovered first,) and then repeat everything with the appendicular skeleton. Over all measurements like entire body length would be done at the end, concluded by it all being recorded in Hanji’s field journal, and then into her computer.

As Hanji worked on S01, Mobilt was busy recording previous recordings into Hanji’s computer, while working on a facial reconstruction. He had originally studied facial anatomy in college, along with numerous forensic qualifications that would mostly be used in relation to crime scenes and assisting police departments and other organisations to find the families of murder or other means of death through reconstructed faces. After he achieved a bachelors, he went to UCSF for schooling, and received a PhD along with Hanji. However, after this, Hanji had asked for him to come with her to Michigan, where she would explore her earlier idea of wishing to research more into biology on the coast of Lake Michigan. Since they were such close friends, he of course said yes.

Hanji picked up her camera from where it was placed on a nearby table and raised it to her eye to look through the viewfinder. Almost as instantaneously as she snapped the first photo, Moblit burst into where Hanji was examining S01 with an almost excited look dancing upon his face. His smile was practically breaking his face into two. Without any hesitation whatsoever, Hanji set the camera back down from where she had originally retrieved it.

“What is it?”

Moblit swallowed, “M01 is on land. Five miles away from us near Onekema. If we hurried, we might be able to spot him in his natural environment before he disappears again.” He was practically shaking with pure excitement; his breathing labored and his hair sticking to his forehead from sweat surrounded with happiness.

...

Eren was pushed out the water with a vengeance, his exposed flesh burning from the sand dragging against his body. On weak arms, he pushed himself off of his stomach and cough roughly; water splashing out of his mouth and soaking into the sand immediately. He could feel his lungs convulse in his chest to rid themselves of water, pushing it from his body so roughly that he felt bile rise into the mix of water. Terror was still present in Eren’s mind. His hands were shaking so roughly that he had to dig them into the ground in order to pull himself farther from the waves lapping at his lower body.

There was no definite name for the feelings that were washing over his shocked body. On one hand, he was mostly dedicated to getting his lungs free from the cold water., while on the other, he was confused and scared of whatever had assisted him from the water. At some point in the middle of being “rescued,” Eren had thought of the possibility that he was imagining all f this, and he was still sinking to the bottom of the lake to become prey to the pummeling, unforgiving waves. Now that his lungs were burning with the ability to breathe once again through whatever was left in his throat, he knew that he was alive and conscious. 

Using his weakened feet, Eren crawled his way farther onto the shore; terrified of the water more than anything else. _What was in it_ , to be more exact. The hands had felt human… with fingers and even what Eren thought to be a thumb and fleshy texture. It was a human, no doubt. One that had found him this far away from publicly accessible areas to drag him down. Surely, this person would have to be one with scuba gear. There was no way in hell that they would be able to swim fifteen feet down that quickly and not need to come up for air themselves.

A deep gash was now present on the arm that had been grabbed just seconds before. Deep red swirled into the water trailing down the boy’s arm and dripping onto the sand. He propped himself onto his elbows and simply _breathed_ ; relishing the taste of air and the feeling of it being pushed through his lungs. While his breathing was shaky and ragged, it was still breathing nonetheless, and he couldn’t be more thankful to be able to do so in such a moment.

He rolled himself over onto his back and remembered almost instantly of the dangers that were crawling near his toes; the dark water and it’s labyrinthine contents. Eren scrambled up to his feet as quickly as he could, but ended up tripping over the deep sand and falling again in his haste. As soon as he was on the ground and once again trying his best to find his feet, he was roughly yanked back towards the lake by his foot. 

Eren cried out in terror and kicked with all of his might. Adrenaline rushed through his veins at the speed of light, fueling him to fight with all of what was left in his body. His foot connected with what Eren thought to be the person trying to drag him back under, and if he hadn’t of been so terrified, he would’ve had time to tell the bastard exactly what he thought of him. 

With another strong kick that resulted in the hand loosening it’s grip slightly, Eren flopped onto his back in the sand and was about to plead with the person to let him go, to “spare him.” Only, as soon as he got a sight of who was gripping his foot in a vice-like grip, Eren quickly realized that it was anything _but_ human.

Surely, it looked like a human. Human-like characteristics in the face and torso, but sitting behind it where it’s legs should be laid a long tail- probably six feet in length colored in a metallic silver and mixture of blues and greens. However, it was so beautiful that Eren couldn’t even manage to look away or scream for help, which would fall upon deaf ears to anyone who would actually provide aid. It looked male due to its short hair and facial structure. Deep, black hair that framed his pale, almost white face. His eyes were a mixture of both of these tones: a piercing silver that seemed to embed itself into Eren’s very soul. The feeling of fear and curiosity pushing and pulling on his chest was more than enough for him to want to continue to throw up from how uneasy he felt. The complete inability to process what was occurring before his very eyes.

“W-what are you?” Eren asked dumbly, his words stumbling over each other and blending together into what sounded like almost one, inseparable word. For some reason, he spoke to the creature anyways, as if he would be one to understand English despite appearing to be nothing other than an organism incapable of human-like thought processes.

Eren jumped as the merman cocked his head to the left, letting out a small warble in response; an almost “questioning” sound that rumbled though his chest and out int the air. Not threatening in the least… just… _curious._ The creature was about as curious about Eren as the latter was in the simplicity of return. As the sound explained for itself, the merman did not understand what the human was attempting to communicate through the foreign tongue of English. 

With a cautious movements,, Eren began to move farther back up the shore to create distance. “Do you understand m-me?” He supplied for the second time, trying to see if he was simply bemused and not able to conjure a properly enunciated sentence to return. 

Suddenly, a growl split through the air and Eren squeezed his eyes shut in terror as he tensed his body entirely. If the growl was it’s way of communicating that he understood, or that he wished for the human to stop moving, Eren didn’t know. His eyes were pulled closed; tautly, and his tired muscles ached from their flexed position. His body was ready to run if necessary, but the tired feeling rushing through his body due to its previous lack of oxygen was more than enough to convince him otherwise. This creature was, no doubt, slower on land than in the water, but with the time that Eren would have to scrambled up from the lose sand, it would be too late and he would be easily caught.

Without meaning to do so, Eren muttered out: “please don’t hurt me,” in a pleading tone that easily portrayed how frightened he truly was. He knew that he was on the verge of crying (not that the merman would ever begin to understand what crying meant, in Eren’s mind) and he tried his best to hold his tears at bay. Even though that there would be no understanding of terror to the other being, Eren was certain to himself that he was not going to be killed in such a weak state of mind. It just truly wasn’t worth it.

Almost as if he understood, the merman instantly stopped his growling and hunkered low into a position that Eren immediately realized, or at least hypothesized, as an apology. A low and soft whine escaped the creature’s throat and towards Eren, which had the teenager both interested by the action and the sound. He wanted to ask again if he knew what he was saying, but he knew in his heart that such questions could be denounced as futile. Understanding emotions and a language were on two completely different spectrums of means of communication.

Once he had seen that Eren was no longer as distressed as previously, it pulled itself back upwards into a more natural-looking position and allowed an almost proud facial expression to make way. This made Eren want to ask what the weird happy-face was for, but he knew that he wouldn’t respond to him in an articulate way. 

The merman pulled himself closer towards Eren but stopped when the human flinched in what appeared to be fear and anxiety. He shrunk back as if it had been slapped and lowered its head in somewhat of an expression of submissiveness. After he deemed the boy to have relaxed a bit more, he inched forwards just a bit further and appeared to be almost _pleased_ when Eren did not flinch again. 

Eren watched as the creature grew closer and loser to him with each passing moment. He knew that he should be more terrified regarding the appearance fo something that seemed to only appear in childrens’ stories, mythology and folklore, but he was simply intrigued with how careful the merman appeared to be in establishing somewhat of a relationship. That, and he was almost mystified by his beauty. 

“Do you have a name?” It was stupid to ask another question, when he would obviously receive nothing in hand.

However, the other seemed to understand what he was communicating in someway or another. It was not a direct translation, but he definitely understood what the brunette was asking. 

Letting out another low warble, he pushed his head directly into Eren’s personal space without question. He didn’t seem to understand the idea surrounding personal space, apparently; as it pressed its own cheek to Eren’s without question and hummed lowly, warbling almost in the exact same way as previous.

Eren frowned, still stiff from the close contact: “is that your name?”

It warbled again and sighed contently, pushing into Eren’s body-weight as if it were a cat. 

“I don’t know how to say that,” Eren supplied, still cautious of the creature. “Can I call you something else?”

He received no response. 

With no ideas in his mind as the moment continued to drag onward, Eren glanced down at his jeans, which were a pair of Levi’s. He had no idea why the name had stuck out to him like it had, but it just simply did. Levi was a name that rolled off his tongue with such an unfamiliar ease that he was almost eager to have part in naming the merman. 

“How about _Levi?_ ”

As if on cue, the creature pulled back and stared deeply into Eren’s eyes; understanding. It barked loudly and resumed its previous position, practically knocking Eren over. 

“Okay,” he wanted to laugh, but was too frightened to do so. “Levi it is, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hella gay near the ending who's with me

**Author's Note:**

> Insta: @yoifuckedmeup


End file.
